Force power activation

[Tupteq]

When exactly, during combat round, force power is activated? Rules say:

[Darth Ginzain]

I've always done it as soon as the final roll to activate the power is made, the power is now on. So if you declare you're activating LCS and attacking once in the first round during phase one you roll control, phase two roll sense, and phase three you swing your lightsaber. That's 3 actions and thus 2 maps. When you declare actions for round two say you declare you're keeping up LCS and attacking once. LCS is kept up and requires no rolls, but is still two actions. Your lightsaber attack is one more action for a total MAP of 2d. But you'll attack on phase one now since LCS doesn't require any rolls.

[garhkal]

same here. For Enhance attribue (and like powers) once its up, its up. The power is active, and does not need to be maintained.
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[Tupteq]

[Tupteq]

[Darth Ginzain]

That is technically correct. First round would have zero Map's, second round would have 1 Map since you're attacking after the power is activated, and the third round two Map's. Remember though that LCS is going to add, one would hope, more then two dice to your lightsaber skill so it's still a positive gain even with the Map's.

Too the Enhanced Attribute question. I've always not counted the round the power was activated in as the first round. So in the +3d/1 round example the attribute would be increased by 3d for the remainder of the current round and all of the next round. But that's kind of a GM call. If you want to limit the power then you could rule that the round the power is activated is the first round. Then the player could burn character points to extend the power for another round or more.

[Tupteq]

[vanir]

I believe the reason the Jedi would roll force skills in separate rounds during initial activation isn't directly to avoid MAP, but to accomplish difficulty ratings without being penalized by MAP to make the difficulties for the power activation. Then once the power is up you no longer have to worry about rolling difficulties and simply have MAP for the power on your actions.

It's the only benefit to powers being "kept up" when you think about it, you get the same MAP as if you re-activate it every consecutive round, the key point is you don't have to reroll difficulties.

So you're right, you do have less MAP in the 1st round if you choose to avoid them for power activation, than you do during rounds in which the power is 'kept up' but that's the whole purpose. It's not to have less MAP for other actions, it's to accomplish the difficulty rating if you have low skill dice so you can still use the power. Even if you're not any better with it up in skill dice due to MAP you're still using the Force and that changes things a bit.

My suggested skill uses during power activation are not combat skills but parlay ones. You should be trying to stall an enemy combatant during activation of a Force power so you can hit them with it in the 1st round of actual combat fully activated.
eg. 1st round MAP a sense roll and an intimidation or persuasion roll telling the enemy he stands no chance in this fight. If he fails his willpower he might hesitate and wait until you attack first, giving you the opportunity to fully activate the power during a verbal exchange over two rounds, let you accomplish the difficulties at reduced MAP and then attack first without having to worry about rolling higher power difficulties at MAPs (the control is moderate in LSC, sense is easy).

Another option is a House Rule modification to RAW, which many GMs do with LSC in particular. You might use it so you only MAP the Force skill actually being used specific to the action as a reaction skill if the power is 'kept up', ie. with LSC each attack you roll you MAP a reactionary Sense skill use, if you hit you incur a reactionary Control MAP on the damage. Means less MAP on attack then damage incurs only reactionary MAP. But you do accumulate lots of MAP if you do multiple attacks, which may help tone down Jedi a bit and may not be a bad thing (makes it harder to take down whole platoons in a couple of rounds, but still makes them uber tough to attack just one or two opponents once or twice each in a round).

Or some other method of Jedi lightsabre duelling, like say 1e rules (lightsabre skill attack, sense skill parry and control skill adds to damage for free, no MAP except for declared attacks and parries).